By John Sanford, Jr.
This article belongs to a 12 part series on modern golf course architecture.
In today's golf industry only the profitable survive. Positive drainage is required in order to allow play on the course during rain days. Historically, golf course drainage was handled with surface flow from fairways to the rough. Today, positive drainage is achieved through the use of catch basins, perforated pipe, and solid pipe. This approach allows the architect to drain the entire golf course by picking up the surface and subsurface water and delivering the water in pipe to a lake or other impoundment area. The use of catch basins also allows the architect to "contain" shots along the edge of fairways, lakes, and green complexes by sloping the grade toward the respective target.
Good positive drainage is also the key to cultivating healthy turf. Maintaining strong turf is achieved by controlling the water applied through the irrigation system. The most consistently healthy turf grass will result from consistent irrigation applications and removal of the water through positive drainage.
Most golfers think fairways should be flat to produce the best lie, but actually we design our grading plans to provide a minimum of 3% slope to all fairways and roughs in order to create drainage patterns and move the runoff. The water is directed to a catch basin, lake or other impoundment area to remove the run-off from the play areas. Tees and greens can be less than 3% slope since they typically have subsurface drainage and specified sand in the root zone.
Soil types will dictate the amount of drainage structure needed to remove the run-off from a golf course in a storm event. If the soil base is sandy and has a high percolation rate then little to no drainage structure is needed. When soils are heavy with clay and/or organics, and the percolation rate is low, then more drainage structure is required to remove the water in a timely fashion.
When golf courses are built as a stand-alone profit center, it is essential to install the proper drainage system. With good positive drainage a course can be played on rainy days and add up to 50 days of revenue to any given golf facility. This can make the bottom line look much more attractive and the cost of the drainage system can pay for itself in one year.